39.60° N · 8.41° W · Tomar
Every four years, in early July, Tomar covers its streets with paper flowers made by the residents and women parade with tabuleiros, towers of loaves and flowers crowned with a dove, as tall as the person carrying them. The next edition is from 3 to 12 July 2027, with the great procession on a Sunday.
Part of Tomar
Step by step
During the festival days, the streets of the centre are covered in paper flowers. A jury chooses the best decorated: walk them at dusk.
The procession of the crowns opens the festival; in another, decorated oxen go round the town with carts and horsemen.
The parish processions parade in the morning to the Mata dos Sete Montes.
The parishes gather in Praça da República and hundreds of women parade with the tabuleiros on their heads, which are blessed after Mass.
The day after the procession, bread and meat are handed out among the people, as tradition demands.
It is a festival of the local people, not a show for visitors: each parish prepares its tabuleiros, each street its flowers, and the whole town comes out to watch. That is why it is worth planning your trip around it.
The Festa dos Tabuleiros, also called the Festa do Espírito Santo, is Tomar's great festival and one of the best-known popular festivals in Portugal. It is held every four years in early July; the last was in 2023 and the next is from 3 to 12 July 2027. Tradition links it to the cult of the Holy Spirit promoted by King Dinis and Queen Saint Isabel, with roots that some take back further.
The tabuleiro gives it its name. It is a wicker tray wrapped in an embroidered white cloth, from which rise canes with 30 loaves of 400 grams each threaded on them, decorated with coloured paper flowers and ears of wheat, and crowned with a crown and the dove of the Holy Spirit or the cross of Christ. It must be as tall as the girl who carries it on her head, dressed in white. In the great procession hundreds parade, along a route of about 5 km that represents all the parishes of the municipality.
The residents also cover the streets of the centre with carpets of paper flowers, a custom born in Tomar that other Portuguese festivals have since copied.
Anyone who wants to see a real popular festival. With children it works if you keep them under control in the crowd: on procession day in 2019, around 600,000 people gathered. If you do not like crowds, go on weekdays to see the flower-covered streets and the smaller processions, and avoid Sunday.
From Lisbon there are direct CP trains that end at Tomar in about two hours, and by car it takes a little under an hour and a half. On festival days, the train avoids the parking problem. If you go by car, expect to leave it far from the centre and walk.
3 to 12 July 2027. The great Cortejo dos Tabuleiros is on a Sunday; there are also other processions: the crowns, the boys, the steward, the partial processions of the parishes and the arrival of the oxen of the Holy Spirit, which since 1966 have paraded symbolically. The day after the great procession is the pêza, the distribution of bread and meat among the people. July in Tomar is hot: go prepared for many hours on your feet in the sun. Confirm the official programme when the council publishes it.
Watching the processions and the streets is free. What is expensive is accommodation on those days: book months ahead and, if you cannot find anything in Tomar, look in the surrounding area.
In July the problem is usually the heat. If you cannot take the Sunday sun, go in the late afternoon to the flower-covered streets, which look better without the crowd, and go into the Convent of Christ, which offers shade and coolness.
Who it's for
You like popular festivals, you can travel in July 2027 and you do not mind sharing the street with a lot of people.
You cannot stand crowds or heat, or you cannot book accommodation in time.
What to bring
Map
What you have around the starting point.
More to do
Tips
On the procession days Tomar fills up, and so does the surrounding area.
The best streets on the route are taken hours before the parade.
The flower streets look better without the procession crowd.
You save yourself looking for parking on the big days.
The Convent of Christ early in the morning, and the festival in the afternoon.
Questions
3 to 12 July 2027. It is held every four years, in early July.
On a Sunday. Confirm the official programme when the council publishes it.
No. The processions and the streets can be watched free.
A tray with a tower of 30 loaves threaded and decorated with flowers, crowned with a crown and a dove, as tall as the girl who carries it on her head.
The 30 loaves of 400 grams alone come to about 12 kilos, to which you must add the tray, the canes, the flowers and the crown.
The distribution of bread and meat among the people, the day after the great procession.
If the four-year rhythm holds, in 2031.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/portugal/central-portugal/tomar/things-to-do/tabuleiros-festival
